Little Red Monster
by Real.Smile
Summary: After returning from war, Steven Randle comes home to Evie Thomas and pick up where they left off. However, something is different. Steve is different. Nightmare aren't the only thing that he brought back from Vietnam. Stevie SodaxOC
1. Chapter 1

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**: So welcome to Little Red Monster. This is my first Outsiders fiction in a very long time. I've been writing it in my head for a few years, so I just thought that I'd try it out here. I hope you all enjoy it and review tons. I love Steve and Evie. They are the best Outsiders couple in the world, and I really dislike Soda and Sandy, just in case you wanted to know. Speaking of Soda, I couldn't bear to kill him. He's the glue to the gang, he holds everything down. So he lives in this story, and in any other post-Oustiders events story that I write. So now that I'm done rambling, you may enjoy the chapter. After the disclamier of course.

**DISCLAIMER**: I don't own the Outsiders.

* * *

><p>"What if he-"<p>

"Evie, get out of there, and let's go."

Evie had been hiding out in the bathroom of her home. Her back was pressed to the door and her knees were pulled to her chest. She'd been staring at the blue shower curtains for hours. Her chin was on her knees as she looked at the stitching of the curtains. She couldn't go through with this. She couldn't go. Her bottom lip trembled because she'd been bit and chewing it for hours. She was sure that she tasted blood.

"EVIE!" her friend shouted at her from the other side of the door.

"What if-?"

"Okay, I'm going to go through this one more time. He remembers you. He can't forget you. He still wants to be with you. He'll always want to be with you. He thinks you're beautiful. He always will."

Evie sighed from her side of the door and stood. Kendra, her friend, was right. It had only been a year, he couldn't have had a change of heart that drastic. Could he? Well he was at war. War changes people. War kills people. However, she was sure that he hadn't stopped feeling the same way about her. His letters to her, when she got them, where the same as when he left. She was sure that he felt the same. But would he be the same? She sighed, opened the door, and leaned on the door frame. This seemed to be the perfect time to find out.

"You look nice," Kendra said.

Evie looked down at her outfit. She wasn't wearing anything special. She was just wearing a blue mini-dress that had a scoop neck line and flared sleeves. On her feet were a pair of open toed sandals that had suddenly become all the rage. Her long brown hair, which now fell about six inches below her bra line, was pulled back with a blue ribbon that matched the color of her dress. She only wore mascara and eyeliner for make-up, both of which were waterproof. To be honest, she didn't feel that she looked all that great. She thought that Kendra looked better than her in her khaki hip huggers with wide black belt, red tee shirt, and red tennis shoes. Kendra could pull off the whole relaxed look.

"Thanks," Evie answered. "Should we go now?" Kendra nodded. Evie picked the keys up off the table beside the bathroom door and held them in her hand. Her fingers were trembling so badly that the keys were making a jingling noise.

"Maybe, I should drive," Kendra said, as she took the keys from her best friend.

Evie nodded and allowed her to take the keys. She started to say something about Kendra driving her boyfriend's car, but her mind was elsewhere. Evie followed Kendra out of the house and to the car that she'd kept in her driveway for almost a year. Evie slipped into the passenger seat and sighed loudly.

"So are you excited, now that we've decided that he's going to still love you?" Kendra asked as she backed out of the driveway.

Her heart was racing, "I am." She was unable to lie at this point. "I just hope that he remembers me."

"You know, you'll be looking at him in less than an hour, you probably want to start using his name, just to make sure you still know it," Kendra joked.

Evie scoffed and crossed her arms across her chest. "Of course, I remember his name."

"And how you feel about him?" Kendra continued.

Evie sighed and looked up at the roof of the car. She knew how she felt about him. She'd never forgotten how she felt about him. How could she? She'd loved him since their first date, of course she'd never give him the pleasure of knowing that. "His name is Steven Randle."

* * *

><p>"Stop thinking so hard, man, or your brain's going to melt."<p>

Steven turned his eyes to his best friend, Sodapop Curtis, and smiled. Soda was the one that got him through his time in Vietnam. Soda kept him going. Soda kept him smiling. So when it came time for Steven to return the favor, he did. He'd saved Soda's life twice while in Vietnam. On one of the occasions, Steven almost lost his life saving his friend's, and has he lost his life. It would have been worth it. Soda was the better person out of the both of them, and the better person should always live.

"What are you thinking about?" Soda asked seeing that Steve was going back into his own little world of thought.

Steve looked out of the window at the scenery that was rushing by them. He wasn't actually thinking about one thing. All of the thoughts in his brain, had been tossed together making it impossible to get a solid line of thought going. However, when Soda asked there was one thought in his mind that stood out more than the others. It wasn't the number of people that he killed while at war. It wasn't the number of families that he destroyed. It wasn't the amount of fellow American he watched die. Although those thoughts were swimming around in his head, they always were.

"Do you think she's there?" Steven voiced. That was the main thought that was on his mind.

Soda looked confused. "Who is she?"

"The girl that I've been writing letters to for a year," Steve said looking at his friends as if he were crazy. Soda continued to looked at him. "Evie." Her name felt foreign to him.

"Ah, that broad," Soda joked. "I knew you meant her. I just wanted to make sure that you still knew her name. I haven't heard you say it in a long time."

Steven shrugged. He used to talk about Evie all of the time when he got to the tropical war zone. However, one of the older gentlemen told him that people that talk about their girls back home, usually never made it back home. At first Steve didn't believe him, but one of the guys he was with, who talked about his fiancée all the time, was shot right in front of him. Steve never attributed the fact that the man died because he was in a war zone, he decided that he died because he was talking about his girl. After that moment, Steve vowed to never speak her name again while he was at war. When her letters came, he wouldn't write her name in the greeting. It was always Babe or some other pet name. He never wrote Evie. She never asked him why he didn't write her name, so he figured that he must have explained it to her unconsciously.

"Don't call her that," Steve said as he watched the DX their old place of employment roll by.

"Sorry, buddy," Soda said lightly. "Didn't mean to offend you."

"So do you think that she's there?" Steve asked again. He felt stupid about his self consciousness.

Soda nodded, "I know she'll be there."

* * *

><p>Kendra pulled her best friend out of the car and sighed. Evie's green eyes were narrowed in the sun and her fingers were stroking the class ring that hung around her neck. It was Steve's. He'd given it to her when he asked her to go steady. Evie never took that damn thing off. Even when she and Steve were fighting, that thing never left her neck.<p>

"Okay," Evie exhaled as she began to walk towards the crowd at the Greyhound station. "I'm ready."

Kendra bounced behind her as they made their way thought the crowd. Evie's fingers had travel back up to the ring on her neck. Her thoughts were on Steve, not on playing attention to where she was walking, and that of course resulted in her running into someone. She stumbled backward and blinked rapidly as if she hadn't expected that to happen.

"Sorry," she said.

"It's okay, Evie," the voice answered back.

Evie's green eyes were met by another pair of green eyes. "Ponyboy," she grinned. "It's just you, I thought it was someone, ya' know, important," she joked.

Ponyboy pushed her lightly and then tossed his arm around her shoulders. He knew that she was just kidding. Believe it or not, Ponyboy Curtis had become one of her closest friends since the day that Soda and Steve were deployed. She stood in a stop very similar to this one when the boys left for war. Her fingers were playing with the necklace on her neck as she watched the bus drive away from her. That's when Ponyboy had placed his hand on her shoulder. A simple gesture was all that she needed to know that he was there for her. She'd called in when her first letter from Steve came. She wasn't surprised to see that he'd gotten on from Soda also. They'd gone to the park and sat on the swings and read their letters in silence. They never found out what one another's letters said, but the fact that they were there for one another was enough. Then it had become a thing that they just did. He'd call when he got a letter knowing that she'd also received one and they'd got to the park and read. She'd call when she couldn't sleep, and found him sitting awake as well. Ponyboy wasn't half as bad as Steven made him out to be. In fact, he was like the little brother that she never got.

Evie lay her head on his arm. Over the past year, he'd grown five inches, making him taller than her. "Are you alright?" he asked her quietly.

"No," she muttered. "You?"

"No."

* * *

><p>The youngest Curtis and the brunette girl held their ground as watched as a grey bus pulled up. Darry, Two-Bit, and Kendra had found them by then, and stood beside them. Slowly but surely, men in uniform began to get off the bus. Ponyboy gave her hand a comforting squeeze and didn't let go. He watched as the men exited the bus and started off to search for their families. Evie was devastated when Steven and Sodapop weren't the first or second off the bus. In fact, they weren't even getting off the bus yet. Evie started at the bus, as if she could see through the bus' metal and to her boyfriend. She could see that the bus was almost empty, and they still weren't off the bus.<p>

"They're coming," Ponyboy soothed as he rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. A perfect way to soothe her.

Evie pulled her hand from Ponyboy's and crossed her arms across her chest. How dare he keep her waiting! That jerk. Evie glared at the bus and narrowed her eyes. Then she saw him. Not Steven, Sodapop. He walked off the bus in an entirely too happy manner. He was laughing and shouting something over his shoulder. Evie's eyes left Soda and fell on a man behind him. Evie looked at him for a long moment and then it hit her.

"Steve."


	2. Chapter 2

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **I've had this one on my computer for a while. So I just decided to throw it up here, and now I can start writing the next chapter.

**DISCLAIMER: **Me no own the Outsiders.

* * *

><p>"SODA!" Ponyboy shouted when he spotted his brother through the thinning crowd. Soda and his best friend had been the last off the bus. Ponyboy hadn't even recognized his brother until he heard Evie breath Steve's name. Instead of running towards him and embracing him, like he so desperately wanted, he hung back. Ponyboy knew a little about the war in Vietnam, one of the men that came back a few months ago worked at a shop he frequented. The man told him all that he could ever want to know about the war. Ponyboy knew about how the Viet Cong would attach bombs to children and have them run into camps to kill soldiers, knowledge that he'd shared with the others. So when they saw Soda they didn't run towards him and scare him.<p>

Sodapop stopped his brother's and friends, and bounded towards them hurriedly. While she was watching Soda bounce and push his way through the crowd, Evie lost sight of Steve and her heart broke a little. Soda stopped a few feet away from Ponyboy and looked at his brothers and friends and rolled his brown eyes. "You don't wanna hug the monster?" he asked playfully as he dropped his bag on the ground. "Come on, Pony." Ponyboy was the first into his brother's arms. He was careful not to squeeze too tightly, but Soda wasn't that kind. Soda's hug knocked the wind out of him. "I missed you, kid," Soda muttered into his hair. Darryl hugged him from the side and ran his hand over Soda's hair. "I missed you, too, Darry," Soda voiced without need. Two-Bit hung back and waited for the reunion to be over. "Two-Bit, you're family too," Soda muttered from inside of the hug. So Two-Bit hugged Soda's other side and this time he didn't say anything about missing anyone. They all knew.

"Where's Evie?" Soda questioned as he pulled out of the hug.

"Here," the brunette said as she stepped up to him. Soda held his arms out to her and the brunette walked into the embrace. "I missed you, Soda," she told him as she squeezed him affectionately.

Soda pulled her dark locks in an equally affectionate manner. Evie had always been like a sister that he never wanted. The first time that Steve introduced them was not the first time that she and Soda's paths had intertwined. Evelyn Thomas was in the same kindergarten class as Soda. She was new to Tulsa, having been raised in Oklahoma City, and everyone was blocking her out of the friendships that they'd formed long before school. It was Soda that offered to sit with her and it was Soda that made her laugh. It was Soda that introduced her to Steven when they were children. Soda knew Steven through his father's work. Steven's mom worked with his dad and the two boys would hang out together. They were friends long before school started. After the start of junior high, the two lost touch, until high school. Steven managed to land a date with her late in their junior year, and introduced her to Soda on a double date with a girl named Sandy. Evie never forgot a name, although Soda's was a hard one to forget, and recognized him immediately. The connection that they'd developed in kindergarten was reconnected almost instantaneously, and the double date was amazing for her. He was the one that convinced her to go steady with Steven even though he didn't have a good reputation with girls. He was the reason there was a Steve and Evie. "I missed you too," he said into her long dark hair. Soda looked over her shoulder and smiled. "Look who I found," he mused. "I was just keeping her out of harm's way, Steve."

Evie whipped around in Soda's arm, her hair hit in the face. Sure enough, Steven Randle stood behind her with one eyebrow arched and hands in his pockets. A small smile played on her lips and she cocked her head to the side taking him in. He was older but he looked older than he actually was. He was 20 and his eyes looked like those of an old man. His body wasn't in the best shape either. She could tell he'd been skipping meals and was obviously sleep deprived. However, he still remained muscular. She could still tell even though he was wearing his uniform. The one thing that she wasn't digging was his hair. She didn't like it short. In fact she hated it. But that was something she could deal with, it was going to grow back.

"Hey stranger," she said quietly, but she knew that he could hear her. "Where ya' been?" Her subtle way of asking why the hell he hadn't come over with Soda.

"You know," Steve rubbed the back of his neck. "I've been here and there." His way of saying that it was really none of her damn business.

She crossed her arms across her chest and sighed. "Oh, that's cool. So…" she let her voice trail off. She looked down and her bangs covered her green eyes. She desperately wanted to be in his arms and feel his warmth, but she couldn't, not until he gave her the okay. Steven touched her chin and tilted her head up. "Oh, now you don't wanna be a stranger," she joked. Steven chuckled and rolled his eyes.

"You were the one in the arms of my best friend," he replied.

"Jealous, are we?" she questioned. Steven grabbed her waist and pulled her towards him. She immediately collapsed into Steve's chest. He inhaled softly as the, almost foreign, scent of her hair filled his nostrils, he'd forgotten her smell.

"Of Sodapop?" Soda looked over at the sound of his name and Steve smirked at him and Soda looked away. The gang was good at giving her and Steve private time when they needed it. "I don't think that I am."

"Oh," Evie said, "Really now. Why not? He gets all the girls."

"But one," he smiled and Evie's cheeks flushed. "He doesn't have you."

Steven leaned down and kissed her. It was nothing that could be done in front of company; however, it was a little heavy. It was a kiss that promised more. Evie felt her face grow hot and knew that someone was watching. She knew it wasn't the gang, she could hear them talking. It was someone in the crowd, someone that disapproved of their public display of affection. Normally, she would have said something to them about and told them off, but Steve was here after being gone for a year. After a year of being gone, he still wanted to be with her and she wasn't going to take that for granted. They two broke part soon enough, because of lack of air, and Evie leaned her forehead against his. Then after a moment she buried her face in his shirt and inhaled softly.

"Thank you for keeping your promise," Evie muttered into the fabric of his shirt. Steven chuckled and ran his fingers through her long hair. He was glad that she didn't cut it while he was gone.

"I tried, babe." There was a silent; "It wasn't easy" that followed the sentence.

"Alright, so now that the reunion is over," the voice belonged to Kendra. Evie had never been so angry with her best friend. She could have stayed in Steve's arms for all of eternity. "What you ya' say to getting," she looked down at Darry's watch, "lunch."

"A burger," Soda said suddenly. "That sounds so good." He was practically drooling with anticipation.

"Well then burgers it is, little buddy," Darry said.

"You in Steve?" Soda asked as they turned to go to the cars.

"I guess, I don't have Alice," Steven shrugged. Having completely forgotten about that, Evie pulled the keys out of Kendra's pocket and dangled them in front of her boyfriend's face. A smiled played on Steve's lips and he took the keys from her. "You are amazing," he told her. "We'll meet you there. The Dingo?" Steve asked as Evie pulled out of his arms and started to lead him to his baby. He saw Soda nod and with that he was off.

Evie's small form pulled him through the crowd of reunited families and couples. Steven nodded and waved to a few of them, stopping only once to introduce Evie to a guy that said she didn't exist. It took all the man had to keep his jaw from dropping when he saw Evie. His eyes wandered her curves and Steve remembered. He remembered what it was like to feel that green monster crawling around in his brain; telling him that she was leaving him. Then there was another monster; a monster that Steve had been well acquainted with over the past year; the little red monster. He felt the need to just strangle the man that he fought beside for a year. However, Evie's warm hand against his and her side pressed against his soothed the green monster as well as the red one as well. Evie must have excused them because they next thing he remembered was her leaning on the door of his car.

"Are you okay, Steve?" she asked touching his forearm.

Steve didn't respond, he just leaned down and pressed his lips to hers roughly. Her lips responded immediately, however, hers weren't rough. Her kiss was tender and soft; causing Steve's to lose its roughness. His hand slipped through her long brown hair and came to rest at the small of her back. He pulled her closer to him, close enough so that she could feel his arousal between them. There was a smirk on her lips, he could feel it. He knew that she loved the effect that she had on him. Her palms rest on his chest, ready to push him away if he got too carried away. His hand left her back and slipped around to her hip. Evie, who felt the eyes of others on her, pushed him away from her gently.

"Steven," she said quietly, "there are people here."

"And?" he said, leaning to kiss her again.

"Steven," she muttered against his lips. "Tonight."

Steven let out a slow sigh and took his hand off her hip. "Tonight," he agreed as he kissed her again quickly.

Evie ducked under his arm and smiled as she walked to the over side of the car and hopped in. "Come on, Steven."


	3. Chapter 3

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Thanks for all the reviews. So here's the next chapter.

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own the Outsiders.

* * *

><p>Steve slipped into the car and groaned. It had been a year since he'd been in his car. It had been a year since he'd started the engine that he'd worked so hard on. It had been a year since he had Evie sitting next to him. He'd been missing the smell of the leather seats and sound of the purring engine for a year, but that wasn't what he was groaning about. He was groaning about the closeness of the seat to the steering wheel. He slipped his hand between the door and the seat and moved the seat back.<p>

"Glory, Evie," he said as he stated the car, "how do you drive that close to the wheel."

Evie rolled her eyes and her fingers found their way back to his class ring that hung around her neck. "I'm shorter than you are," she said obviously. "My feet don't even reach the pedals from back there."

Steven looked over at her and rolled his eyes. She was indeed much shorter than him. He stood at a solid six foot and she was a petite five foot three inches. His blue-green eyes fell on her necklace, and something inside of him warmed. "You still have that?" he asked as he pulled out of the parking spot. He reached over and touched the gold ring on her necklace. The ring's red gem was rectangular. Across the gem was the mascot of the school; Wolverines, and one the left and right side of the red gem was his graduation year 1966. Then on the right side of the ring was a W and on the left a R, standing for Will Rogers High School.

Evie felt her face flush and she smirked, "Yeah," she mused. "I have you letter jacket too."

Steve looked over at her. There she was sitting in his passenger side seat, just as she had some many times before. She looked stunning, and he wondered if he told her that when he saw her. She looked good. She'd remained fit, in his absence. Her hair had grown longer, and he liked it. Some of the guys would show him pictures of their wives with shout hair, it was the new fad. Every time Steve would see one of the pictures and he was writing a letter to Evie, he'd add in a postscript, _Don't cut your hair. _He was glad to see that she hadn't. Her eyes were as green as ever. He'd hoped that he wouldn't come back and her eyes would be lifeless. Evie and Soda had that same kind of eyes, both of their eyes were bright and full of life.

"Steve," Evie called to him, "We're never going to get out of the parking lot if you keep staring at me." He could see the blush creeping up her neck.

Steve rolled his eyes and pulled out of the lot and into traffic. It had been a year since he'd drive his car. It had been a year since he'd been on a street. It had also been a year since his world was this quiet. He was so used to the sounds of gunfire and shouting that the silence that filled the car was deafening. Steve squeezed the steering wheel as he came to a stop at a red light. "Evie," he said a little too loudly. He saw her jump out of the corner of his eye. He gave her an apologetic look because he hadn't meant to scare her. "You have to talk to me. I can't handle this silence."

Evie bit her lip and nodded. He'd said in one of his letters that the sound of war had engulfed him, and when it was quiet, he thought that to be the worst sound in the world. "I teach two classes a week at the studio," Evie mused. "Joyce gave me a pay raise and that came with another class." Evie had been dancing at a studio down on Sutton, splitting Greaser and Soc territory, since she was about six. It was her thing. Evie might not have been good at math or fixing cars, but she sure as hell could dance.

"That's good," Steve said as he switched lanes. "You still work down at the bar?"

"Yep," she answered. "I do, and sometimes I pick up shifts at the theater."

Steve was quiet for a moment. "That's three jobs, Evie." She started to say something snide about how she was proud that he could do math, but didn't. He lowered his eyebrows and looked at her for a split moment, and she knew what question was coming next. "Why are ya' working so much?"

Evie sighed and looked up at the blue sky. "Honestly, it's because my sister moved out. So I've been supporting myself for about six months." Her mother ran off with some man when she was three, and her father drunk himself into a grave shortly before Steve left for war. After that it was just Evie and her sister, Misty, who was twenty-two when he left for war, so she was twenty-three.

"What?"

"Yeah, she just left one day while I was at the studio," Evie said, running her fingers through a chunk of hair that she'd pulled over her shoulder. "I don't really know why, and she didn't leave a note just two hundred dollars in cash on the counter." Evie shrugged.

"She just left?" Steven asked.

Evie looked over at him and noticed that he was gripping the wheel tightly. His knuckles were turning white. Evie reached over and ran her index finger across his knuckles. Whenever Steve was stressed and ready to fight, she'd make him sit down and rubbed his knuckles. She'd read somewhere that it relaxed the muscles in the persons hands. Usually, if she could get his fingers to relax then, she could calm him down enough to get him to be reasonable.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Steve asked as some color began to return to his knuckles.

Evie shrugged. "I didn't want you worrying about me in a warzone. I was fine."

Steve scoffed and pulled into a parking lot around the Dingo and the parked. He saw the car with Ponyboy, Soda, and Darry pull up, Two-Bit's car followed. Steve sighed and leaned over her as he pushed her car door open. "I'm not sure if I'm upset about that yet," he said to her as he hopped out of the car and leaned against it. Evie bounced over to him and stood up on her tip-toes, Steve smirked and closed the distance between their lips. He's missed the feeling of her lips on his.

"So lunch," Evie asked after she pulled her lips away from Steve's.

Steve agreed and took her hand, lacing his fingers in her warm sooth ones. The two walked to the door where, the Curtis' and Two-Bit were walking in.


	4. Chapter 4

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Nothing much to say, but enjoy.

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own the Outsiders.

* * *

><p>"Hey," Evie said as she walked into The Dingo with Steven in tow. The six of them all sat around a large table and started in on random conversation. It was good that they could just talk. After a year of being at war, Soda had expressed that he was nervous that they wouldn't be able to just talk to them. It would seem that he was incorrect. Ponyboy and Soda were sharing a laugh about something stupid, Two-Bit and Steve were chatting about something, and Evie and Darry were watching the exchange with an amused expression.<p>

Evie was sipping on the Pepsi that Steve had bought her. Her red lipstick was leaving a red ring around the straw. Her green eyes were trained to something off in the distance. She then brought her fingers to the straw twisted it, swirling her soda around.

"Hey," the boys called to her in what seemed to be in unison.

Her green eyes flicked over to them and she arched her eyebrow. "What?"

"What's so amusing over there?" Soda asked her.

Evie shook her head. "I was just thinking," she said. "Something that I'm sure you still don't do."

Soda stuck his tongue out at her and launched a fry across the table. Evie swatted it away and crossed her ankles under her chair. "Where did you leave Kendra?"

"She said she had to work," Two-Bit supplied. "She's picking up your shift at the bar."

Evie rolled her eyes and sipped her Pepsi. "I was never working today. I wonder if she knows that."

The boys shrugged and dove back into their meals. Evie on the other hand, chewed absentmindedly on a fry that she stolen from Steven's plate. Her green eyes were looking elsewhere again.

"What are you looking at?" Steven whispered in her ear.

"Nothing," she responded. "I'm just thinking."

"About?"

Evie shot him a look from the corner of her eye that said it was no of his business. Steve's eyes said that it was his business. Hers then said that it really wasn't and that if he continued to push it, there'd be hell to pay. His said that he didn't give a damn.

"Oh, I think Evie's winning," Soda said interrupting their silent conversation.

"Nah, Steve's winning," Pony said.

"Evie."

"Steve."

"Evie, always wins."

"That's why Steve has to win. He never wins."

Evie looked at the arguing brothers with an arched eyebrow. Her red lips were pursed, but they were smirking. "What are you two going on about?" she asked.

"Who was going to win that conversation," Soda informed. "It's you. You always win."

Evie laughed and sipped her Pepsi again, "Well I stand corrected, Sodapop, you do think, and you 're observant." Steven elbowed her. "Well, I'm always right."

"She is," Soda mused.

She rolled her green eyes. She was always right. She might not have been right at that very moment, but she always ended up being right. It was her thing.

"She really doesn't need you inflating her ego," Steve said as he swatted her hand. "Stop taking my fries, Evie." She reached over and snatched one from over his hand. He grabbed her wrist, in a gentle manner, and shook the fry from her hand. Evie pulled away and rubbed her wrist.

"Steve," Soda said, looking at Evie with concern.

"She's faking it," Steven said as he handed her a fry, which she took with a sly smile. "All you have to do is ask."

"Gimme?"

Steve rolled his eyes and pushed the remainder of his fries to her. She smirked and chewed on the end of a fry.

"Look at that, Steve Randle has gone soft," Two-Bit laughed.

In response, Steve launched a fry in Two-Bit's direction.

* * *

><p>She and Ponyboy had fallen asleep on the sofa in the Curtis house. She'd been leaning against his side while the other boys played poker. Ponyboy had never been good at Poker, seeing as he was a bad liar, and Evie opted out of playing, so to let the boys have some bonding time. He was reading some book and she was watching the game. From her position on the sofa se could clearly, see Steve's hand. He was bluffing and she knew it. How the hell was he going to win this game with a seven-high? However, he'd managed to get Two-Bit to fold, then Darry, and finally Soda. How? Because he could bluff like no one's business.<p>

However, when she woke up she could see that the boys weren't playing Poker anymore. They were talking quietly, so not to wake Evie and Ponyboy. Their faces were dark. Soda's dancing eyes were still.

"...killed him?" Darry was saying when she finally came too.

They were talking about the war. Evie shifted slightly Steve's jacket. He must have tossed it on her when she was asleep. It smelled like him. She closed her green eyes closed so that she could listen to their conversation. She knew that Steve would never talk to her about it.

"Yeah, the guy just shot him," Soda said quietly. "All we could do was watch."

"That's all we could do most the time," Steve mused. "Especially when you didn't want to die yourself."

"That too," Soda said.

"Kill or be killed," Steve continued. "It's kinda like what we do here. Only we don't use guns here, most the time." He sighed. "It ain't like anything you ever seen. It's like one never-ending rumble, with guns and grenades."

"And death, death all around," Soda added. "One day you'd be talking to a guy about going back home. The next day you'd see him layin' dead on the grass with a hole in his head, or his chest, and his eyes all wide. You'd wanna go and close the guy's eyes for him, but you can't, because the moment you let your guard down, you end up dead, just like him."

A chill ran down her spine, and she bit her lip, hoping that one of them would continue.

"And then you think," Soda continued, "that they'll never see their family again. They'll never get married or have kids. They'll never get to tell their story. Hell, sometimes their families never got a body. They just got a flag and the government sent officials."

"There was one guy that used to talk about his fiancée," Steve started. "Him and his broad's brother were both drafted. The broad's brother got killed. Then the broad wrote him a letter, telling him that she couldn't be with him anymore, because he'd let her brother die. So the guy went into enemy territory, without a reason, and got himself blown up." She could feel Steve's eyes on her. Why was he saying that?

"That poor broad had to bury her brother and her fiancé," Soda said. "It ain't right." He then turned his eyes to Steve. "I don't see how you did it Steve," Soda started. Even from her spot across the room, she could feel every muscle in his body tense. "I mean, stay with Evie, ya' know? It would have killed me."

"I just didn't think about what would happen," he said. "I told her I wasn't going to die. So I made that a nonnegotiable in my mind. The rest was the hard part."

Soda chuckled, "The rest." Soda yawned. "I'm gonna call it a night. We still going down to the DX to see if he'll give us our jobs back?"

"Yeah," Steve answered. There was a shuffling of feet and muttered good-byes. Evie closed her eyes tighter. "I know that you're awake," Steve said into her ear as he shook her shoulder. Evie pretended that she as just waking up and rolled her eyes. He pulled her up and she slipped on his jacket. "We'll talk in the car."

"See ya', Steve," Soda called.

"See ya'," Steve called back into the house as he pulled Evie down the stairs out the door and to his car. He waited until he started the car before looking at her from the corner of his eye. "How long had you been listening?"

"Only a few minutes," she said quietly.

Steve sighed. "You know, I didn't want you to know that."

"Well, I do now," Evie said as she pulled his jacket closer to her body and inhaled his scent.

"That you do."


	5. Chapter 5

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **So, here's another chapter, thanks for all the reviews that I got.

**DISCLAIMER: ** I don't own the Outsiders.

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><p>He rolled over and inhaled slowly. The scent of vanilla filled his nose. He kept his blue-green eyes closed and inhaled again. His fingers trailed down the side of her bare flesh. He missed her curves. He'd missed her body. She shifted underneath his arm and exhaled contently. He then knew she was awake. He kissed the side of her neck, and nipped her skin gently. She squirmed his grasp, pressing her back against his chest. She mumbled something under breath.<p>

"What was that?" Steve asked her as he nipped at her neck.

"Stop it," she said as she pulled the comforter over her head. Steve pulled her close and nipped at her neck again. Evie laughed. "Steven Randle," she snapped tiredly as she rolled over and looked into his blue-green eyes. He kissed her, running his hands down her chest. "Stop it," she said as she tried to push him away. He stopped and looked somewhere over her head. "What time is it?" she asked as she buried her face into the skin of his chest.

"It is nine thirty-five," Steve said. His fingers through her dark hair. "What time do you have to go to work?"

She groaned and rolled over on to her back. "Eleven. When are you and Soda supposed to go to the DX?"

"An hour ago," Steve laughed. Evie scoffed and rolled her eyes. She pushed him before she stood up pulling the comforter with her. Steve looked up at her wrapped in the black comforter and smirked, "Whatcha' hiding for? It's not like I ain't seen it before?" He could see a small blush creeping up her neck, and to her ears. He was pleased with her reaction. "I'm only messing," he said.

She lowered her eyebrows. "I'm going to shower."

Steve nodded and as got up and pulled the sheet with him. He walked to her dresser and opened the bottom left drawer. Inside of it was his spare outfit. He'd been keeping clothes as Evie's place for a while. He never knew when he was going to show up. At first, he'd come and spend the night with her when she called him and asked him to. Then he'd come over when he didn't want to deal with his father. However, it soon evolved into him coming over because he wanted to be with her. So he started keeping a spare outfit over at her place. He got dressed, not bothering to shower and walked to the phone. He dialed the number of Sodapop Curtis.

Soda answered on the first ring. "Where are you man?"

Steve ran his hand over his face and smiled. "I'm at Evie's, man. I'll be there in like a half hour." Soda muttered something to someone on the other end of the line. "Cool?"

"Yeah," Soda answered. "Tell her I said hi."

"Will do," Steve responded before hanging up.

He wondered down the hall, and to the bathroom. The door was open now, and the steam from her shower floated into the hall. Evie stood in front of the mirror, wrapped in a blue towel, and applying black gunk on to her eyelashes. He approached her and kissed the back of her shoulder. Her green eyes flicked over to his blue-green eyes as she dipped the wand into the bottle.

"Yeah?" she questioned.

"I gotta be at Soda's in a half an hour," Steve told her. Evie nodded and ran her fingers through her wet hair. "Do you want a ride to work?" She pulled her hair into a ponytail and nodded. "Half an hour."

Evie pushed pass him playfully and walked to her bedroom. Steve leaned on the doorframe and watched her hips sway under the towel. She looked over her shoulder, obviously having felt him starting at her and smiled before she continued on her way. Her hips. That was one of the first things that Steve noticed at her when they were sophomores. Then her eyes. Her emerald green eyes. He'd always been attracted to girl's with green eyes and hips. Her hips weren't extremely wide. But that would have looked weird of her small frame. Her hips were perfect on her, or at least that what he thought.

"Don't think too hard, your brain will explode," Evie joked as she walked out of the bedroom dressed in a short black skirt and a red collared shirt and to the kitchen. Steve sneered at her and smacked her butt for good measure. She shot him a look before she continued down the hall. "I have cake," she said as she opened the refrigerator, "and beer."

Steve walked into the kitchen to see her hold a beer in one hand and a plate of cake in the other. He took the beer and smirked at her. "You're the best," he mused.

"I know," she responded as she bit into a piece of cake. "Ready to go?" Steve nodded. "Alright, then, let's go."

He picked up his keys from the table beside the door and finished off his beer. He then placed the bottle on the table. Evie walked out of the door and he followed.

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><p>"STEVE!" Two-Bit shouted as he and Evie approached the door.<p>

Steve froze beside her, his blue-green eyes were wide. Evie could see every muscle in his body tense. He was squeezing her shoulder. It wasn't the usual comforting squeeze, he was actually hurting her. Evie winced and tried to pull out of his grasp, but he wasn't letting her go anywhere.

"Steve, stop you're hurting me," she said.

Steve seemed to come back from wherever he was and released his hold on her shoulder. He shoved his hands into his pockets muttered a soft apology, before walking off towards the house. He hit Two-Bit in the back of the head and disappeared into the house. Evie rubbed her shoulder and followed him.

"What are you doing here?" Soda asked as he pulled on one of his many plaid shirts.

"Waiting to go to work," she responded. She looked over at Steve, who refused to look at her. "Are you ready, So?"

"Yeah," he said walked out the door,

"Shoes," she shouted as she knelt down to grab them. Soda stuck his head in the door and smiled at her. "You're welcome."

"Thank you."

As Steve walked by her, she grabbed his forearm. He turned to face her, not having any other option. He looked genuinely sorry for inflicting any kind of pain on her, intentional or not. Had she asked him to explain what happened, he wouldn't have been able too. All he knew was that when Two-Bit shouted his name, he was back in the place. He was back there. He was there with a the noise and the people he'd left behind. He looked away from her, not able to looking into her green eyes. He'd never realized it, but Evie was so innocent. Sure, she'd watched her father drink himself to death, but that was only one death. She'd never seen seven people die at once. She'd never seen children running naked with burns on their bodies. She'd never seen war. She was innocent, and he wasn't. Steve was now far from innocent.

"Steve," Evie said quietly, as she felt him pull his arm away from her.

"Let's go," he said mutely. "Later, guys."

Evie followed him quietly with her arms crossed. He was being stubborn and she didn't like it.


End file.
